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I have been friends with Electronic Cottage member
John M. Bennett since 1990, when he contributed the opening track to the first Electronic Cottage Compilation.
In the liner notes of that first EC Compilation I wrote:
John M. Bennett is an eclectic and innovative poet who has recorded numerous audio cassettes, and also published The Lost & Found Times, an interesting magazine and compilation cassette publication featuring diverse audio poetic works by a number of artists. Bennett twists and shapes and contorts the elements of language, carving out unique and highly personal self-portraits.
In the fifth issue of the original Electronic Cottage print magazine I published an interview with John by Dimthingshine.
Attendees of my Apartment Music shows have seen this photo of John which he sent to me in 1991 to accompany the interview.
John and I have exchanged a lot of mail through the years and in May 2012 we finally met in person for the first time during my visit to Columbus, Ohio.
Several months later, in early 2013, we collaborated for the first time on a dictaphone-based album called Sticky Suit With Tape.
In 2014 I issued an album by John and C. Mehrl Bennett called A Hamster In Your Sandwich on my Kassette Kult Tapes label. It is currently available online on my HalTapes Bandcamp site.
In March of this year I issued an authorized archival reissue of his 1985 cassette release, THE SPITTER.
In July 2018 John contributed his recording titled "ILB'AL" to the fourth Electronic Cottage compilation.
I mailed one of the EC badges created by Jeremiah Paddock (based on a design by Mike Nobody) to John and he sent me this awesome photo of him sporting his EC Badge. You can view a slideshow of 39 other EC members wearing their EC badges.
In trade for the EC Badge John mailed to me four badges/pins, including a pin of Luna Bisonte Prods, his long-running personal publishing outfit.
It seems like I receive mail from John M. Bennett just about every month, and sometimes two or three times a month! In recent months I have fallen behind on my postal mail correspondence (due to being so busy with Electronic Cottage!), but I hope that will change soon. I will eventually mail some more stuff to you, John! I promise.
Here are a couple more mail items that I received from John M. Bennett in the last couple of months. 
9 Comments
Dylan Houser
12/14/2018 20:12:31
I've definitely gotta add him to my mailart exchange list. I have two completed batches of postcards to mail out within the next month or so
Chris Phinney
12/14/2018 21:19:25
Very nice tribute to Mr. Bennett, we have never exchanged anything over all these years, don't know why, just the way the cookie crumbles I suppose.then you can never touch base trade with everyone you would like to.A mystery especially when I exchanged so much with Minoy & numerous others. A wonderful read & listen. Thanks for this!
Chris Phinney
12/14/2018 21:22:26
Meaning Minoy & others were or are excellent poets & sound musicians.
Adam J Naworal
12/15/2018 02:06:42
What a nice tribute! This is the kinda empowering stuff that makes me glad to be here!
Leslie Singer
12/15/2018 08:58:02
Hal, thank you for introducing me to John’s work when I first came onboard to the EC world. I’m a big fan of Sticky Suite Tape, The Spitter and the other visual and sound poetry that John has shared here at EC. Not to mention his work on the William Burrough’s Scout Handbook. Awesome! 12/15/2018 09:38:41
Thanks, Hal! This is very cool, I'm honored to be yr friend and to have worked with you
Rafael González
12/15/2018 13:08:01
What a beautiful article! A lovely tribute to one of my favorites!
osvaldo cibils
12/16/2018 05:37:08
¡Sí, muy buen artículo! ¡Me gustan mucho las obras de arte de John M. Bennett y su personalidad tan colaborativa!
Juan Angel Italiano
12/17/2018 12:25:14
John: a great artist and a great person. A teacher! Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
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